When this lockout began in September, Al Morganti told me he had legit concerns that this conflict would surpass one lost season and go right into the next.

Al and I spoke the other night before going on the air for our CSN television special on the lockout and he repeated his worry that the lockout will force the cancellation of this season and imperil next season as well.

Al thinks this could now drag through the courts rather than forcing a settlement.

My feeling was that once the talks degenerated the way they did in New York two weeks ago, and how the NHL childishly ended things, that the course of action had absolutely been scripted. It was a page right out of the Proskauer Rose playbook, orchestrated not by Gary Bettman or Bill Daly, but by league attorney Bob Batterman.

I am now feeling that the league wanted the NHLPA to either vote on decertification or disclaimer of interest and their pre-emptive court filing before the union this weekend convinces me they were pushing this direction.

Unlike many, however, I think, this will force a resolution NOW, not later. This will all end before we get into heavy anti-trust legal action by the union. Which is what Eklund's source was hinting at in his brief blog last night.

Couple things here: First, Bettman continues to have the support of his owners. It may not be unanimous among themselves privately. There are rumors of owners seeking back-channel ways to get a deal done. However, such efforts will only go so far. Publicly, they stand together much like the players stand behind Fehr. The players have their dissidents, too, but most will support the union nonetheless.

That said, "if" we lose another full season to the lockout, I think Bettman will be fired by the owners. Really, they have no choice.

It appears to me, and I said this on CSN last Thursday, that Bettman - maybe I should have added Batterman, as well -- wants more than a total victory over the players. He wants to annihilate them.

And there is no reason to do this. The owners have already won this. That's Bettman's biggest downfall as a Commissioner. He can't see when he's won a war. He has to drop another bomb.

He's got the until to cave on 50/50. Got to accept a long-term deal but can't get the years down. Got them to accept salary variances but can't get them to agree on his percentage. He kept his salary cap. He prevented the union from successfully pushing for a baseball-like luxury tax, which would have made a lot of this mess go away. He got the union to agree on the abolition of hiding salaries in the AHL and back-diving contracts.

Gary Bettman got all this and STILL can't get a new CBA. That is colossal failure in my book.

It really makes you wonder whether this has become "personal" between himself and union boss Donald Fehr. The latter is the most detached man in the room and can separate business from personal better than anyone in this lockout.

So, if we lose this season, the owners have no choice but to remove Bettman. If he can't get a deal done now, then he doesn't deserve another chance to try again in 2013.

But I still believe the uncertainty of the courts will save Bettman from himself and force him to close this deal.

A start date of Jan. 1 was realistic this month, but only if we had a CBA finished by Dec. 20.

We're down to one, final date in my book: Jan. 15 or we likely lose the season.

There's still hope and the court filings, I feel, will push both sides to fulfill that hope. There is just too much at risk otherwise.

Join the Discussion: » 23 Comments » Post New Comment

» Hextall on Post Free Agency, Cap, Kids' Chances

» Sign a Goalie, That's It.

» My take on Weal signing

» They Are What They Are

» Hextall's Take on the Benchings